In one aspect, this invention relates to a surfactant system which includes a blend of different surfactant compositions. According to another aspect, the invention relates to inverse emulsion polymerization using such a surfactant system.
Conventional emulsion polymerization generally has involved an oil phase finely dispersed in a continuous water phase. However, with the production of water-soluble polymers a problem results in that the polymer as it is formed, being water-soluble, dissolves in the continuous water phase and increases the viscosity to an unacceptable extent. If dilute solutions are used, the cost of transportation is prohibitive.
It might seem, then, that the proper approach would be to form the polymer and separate it as a dry solid so that only the polymer has to be transported. However these types of polymers are hard to redissolve in water because the water surrounds the individual particles and swells the outer surface thus forming an "insulation" which greatly slows down the rate at which the polymer goes into solution.
It is known to use an inverse emulsion system wherein water-soluble polymers can be produced in a dispersed water phase within a continuous hydrocarbon phase. Here the polymer formed remains in the dispersed water droplets and does not significantly affect the viscosity of the emulsion. This not only offers an advantage over ordinary emulsions but offers an advantage over forming a dry product. This is because the inverse emulsion is of low viscosity for easy handling and can be quite concentrated for easy transportation. Then at the well site it is easily possible to dilute with a large quantity of water and break the emulsion. Since the polymer is formed in small droplets in the inverse emulsion and is already in solution it easily disperses in the water.
The prior art broadly discloses parameters which can be used to achieve inverse emulsions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,681 for instance discloses the use of a relatively high concentration of surfactants having a hydrophilic/lipophilic balance (HLB) of at least 7 to give a stable emulsion which can be inverted by dilution.
Recently, copolymer compositions based on certain monomers have been developed which are particularly suitable for high temperature utility. These polymers have high molecular weight and contain either N-vinyl lactam monomers such as N-vinylpyrrolidone or vinyl-containing sulfonate monomers such as 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid or a salt thereof. For these polymers, suitable inverse emulsion polymerization techniques have proven especially difficult. Thus while such monomers are broadly mentioned in the art dealing with inverse emulsions, satisfactory techniques for inverse emulsion polymerization of these monomers to high molecular weight polymers has not heretofore been available.